The Bet
by trekkiexb5
Summary: Be careful of betting. It has a way of backfiring. Part of the "What Best Friends are for" Universe. Read that first.


THE BET

By trekkiexb5

Rating: T+ No dirty words, no violence … (reads the story) yeah, it IS a Bleach story written by me, imagine that!

NO BETA, so a little rough. And short.

SYNOPSIS: Be careful of betting. Part of the "What Best Friends are for" Universe. Read that first.

Yeah, I am writing again, yeah! I hope to have the companion piece to this story up by the end of the month.

NOTES: This was written on the fly. I will clean it up later, but the story was begging to explode, so I decided to write it down. HITSUKARIN, but really not…touched…is that a good word? In this story. But the concept is vital for this story.

When I wrote "What Best Friends are for" I had not seen the end of the Winter War, or Fullbringer or anything else, so this is comfortably AU.

For Sailorstar 9, whose review I read and goaded me in doing this.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

The War was over. They had won…but the cost may had been too much. The ramifications had to wait, however, as the recovery process was still ongoing. Many Shinigami, stationed within the actual Kara Kura city blocks and in the Seireitei itself were inundated by untold amounts of hollows. Aizen had probably emptied Heuco Mundo for just this purpose. With the most of the seated Shinigami busy with the main battles, the weaker ones had to protect the Soul Society and the sleeping humans in the swapped city blocks.

So, one could imagine, the damage was pretty extensive.

Squad four's barracks, and adjacent hospital was hit hard. The damage made healing the most badly injured difficult. Triage stations were set up in tents outside the damaged building, with surgergal units working nonstop to save as many for the Shinigami as possible. The badly wounded were house inside, the few private rooms given to the injured captains and officers while the rest were housed in some of the larger rooms generally used for the emergency care.

Though this wasn't always the case. The humans that that woke during Aizen's attack on the actual city as well as some of the officers were housed in one such long room. Madarame had the unfortunate luck not only to be in this room for his recovery, but his bed was next to the only captain who didn't get his own room, one Captain Toushirou Hitsugaya.

Unlike Renji, who had a chip on his shoulder the size of Ichigo's Zanpakto in regards to the youngest captain, Ikkaku didn't mind him at all. He liked some of the impulsive behavior "Captain Kid" sometimes displayed, but he respected the white haired kid's power and discipline.

But, right now, the Captain Hitsugaya was driving him insane.

The humans, in their boredom, had found some playing cards and started to games on each other's beds. Ichigo's dark haired sister, the name escaped Ikkaku, came over to the Captain's bed and proceeded to goad him rather annoyingly into playing this morning. The argument woke Ikkaku from his nap (he was in Squad four's care, what else is he supposed to do?) The subsequent "conversation" dragged Renji, Yamichika and Rangiku into an all-day poker tournament.

That wasn't the worst thing. Once they got used to the rules and mechanics of the game (and created some of their own rules based on the Shinigami) the real betting started. At first the group used the tonnes of candy that the Captain received, that is until Ikkaku's own terror of a lieutenant showed up and conned everyone to give up most of the haul to her, and after went on a sugar fueled hysterical rampage that was ended by Captain Hitsugaya that she should find "Kenny" and see how he was doing.

That crisis was thankfully averted.

Unsure what to use as bets, Yamichika decided to ante up a week of paperwork against Hitsugaya's week of drill practice, that's when it snowballed from there.

Even that wasn't the most annoying thing about the whole situation.

It was the fact the tiny annoying, bratty, white-haired, genius Captain was _winning_.

So by the late hours of the evening, and most of the room was asleep, Captain Hitsugaya won (so far):

10 ice cream treats from the black haired Kurosaki

3 weeks of patrol and 2 weeks of latrine duty from Renji.

4 weeks of alcohol-free office days (including hangovers) from Rangiku

4 weeks of paperwork assisting from Yamichika.

5 weeks of zanpakto training for Squad 10, 2 weeks of latrine duty and six (SIX!) weeks of patrols from Ikkaku.

And the little brat only had to help out with Squad 11's audit paperwork and 2 spars with the squad 11 seats one wide patrol for squad Six and one bottle of 15-year sake (Rangiku, of course). And oh, a soccer game from the Kurosaki brat.

" _Not this time"_ Ikkaku thought, grinding his teeth and glaring over his cards at the smug face of one Captain Hitsugaya.

The boy drew a card, cocked his eyebrow, and discarded an another card from his hand. "Your turn," the quietly spoke at Renji, swinging his leg (the other had an IV in it) that was partially hanging from his bed.

Renji frowned, and slapped his cards down on the bedside stand that they were using as a table. "Nope, I'm done."

The Captain pointly looked at Yamichika, "and you?"

The man ran his free hand though his hair and sighed dramatically. "I am, too. This is getting too ugly for me"

"Madarame?"

" _SHIT."_ The bald headed 3rd seat steamed. _"Whada I do?"_ He sighed and drew a card. _"In for a kan… ah well."_ He got a six. That was good. As per the "Shinigami" rules of poker, each hand had a new high suite, this hand it was squad six. He had one other six in his hand giving him a 2 of a kind. Plus, another pair, this time tens. He tossed an ace away, because the new rules made that the lowest card in the deck. _"another ten or six, and I could win!"_ He thought.

Nonplussed, the little captain drew a card, and discarded another. Ikkaku then drew a card. It matched one of his pairs in his hand. _"I could win, only flushes are going to beat this hand…Don't get too excited, the little brat will probably try to get me to bet something outrageous…maybe that's what I need to do, but what to bet…?"_ He looked around the room, trying to decide what to demand from the Captain if the boy lost. His eyes looked at the humans, then at Ichigo, was sleeping across from him. In the next bed was both his sisters, sleeping. Strangely he suddenly remembered the girl's name. _"Karin…Karin Kurosaki. Hmmm…"_ Then a bolt of lightning of an idea hit his mind. _"The boy likes playing the long game. I willing to wait, too…and it will be so worth it!"_

Smiling manically, Ikkaku spoke. "I'm in. So what's your final bet, Captain?"

The kid smirked. "two months of latrine duty." The kid had a good hand. But was it better than Ikkaku's?

The man shrugged. "Sure. Two months, eh? Must be a good hand."

The boy's twitched. "Maybe, maybe not. Place your bet, Madarame'"

Ikkaku smiled. "I want you do go to the Lieutenant's Bar in Rukon South One distort, you know the one I mean," He paused to see the boy's head nod, slightly confused. The bar is where a lot of the officers hang out on Fridays, if not on duty. "Good. You will go there on the first convenient Friday after you lose your virginity and announce it to the ENTIRE bar that you have and with whom."

Ikkaku had the glee to watch the Captain's eyes widen and he started to make choking sounds. Renji and Yamichika were laughing, abet quietly.

"Oh, this will be GOOD" Renji crowed.

"Hee hee, the embarrassment will be ugly but sooooooo beautiful at the same time!" Yamichika tittered.

"BUT…why?" The boy shook his head. "One, this is not going happen anytime soon" the guestured to himself, making that point. "and two; I don't have a girlfriend, boyfriend anything like that!"

Almost in sync, the three men looked over towards where the Kurosaki sister were sleeping. "uh huh…keep telling yourself that, brat!" Renji snidely commented, grinning. "I can see candidate number one right now!"

Captain Hitsugaya openly gaped. "W-What? With KARIN? Really. Serious? She's my friend, but we aren't romantically involved in any way!" Then he glared at the Squad Six lieutenant' "That's CAPTAIN Hitsugaya, to you!"

All three men snickered again, shaking their heads. It was so obvious, and the Captain couldn't see it. "Personally, it would be fun just see Ichigo open a can of whoop-ass on you Captain," Ikkaku jovially remarked.

The Captain paled. _"He forgot about that! And it proves that the idea of dating Karin has crossed his mind at least once!"_ Ikkaku sat up from his slouched position on his bed. "Ok, fun time's over. So Captain, what's it going to be?"

The boy's eyes narrowed. "I'm in"

Slowly and carefully, he laid his card hand on the table. He also had a pair. Jacks. And three queens.

"And you?"

Ikkaku would wonder later how he kept a straight face. "Good hand sir, good hand…but not as good as mine." He placed the cards down with an audible slap, revealing not only he had that pair of tens, but 3 sixes…which were the high card this hand. Captain Hitsugaya lost.

The boy groaned and flopped on his bed dramatically. "Gods and deities!" he swore and the rest of them laughed.

"Write it down, Captain!" Ikkaku gloated, Handing the boy a piece a paper and a pen. "Do you need to repeated?"

Captain Hitsugaya sat up threw all three of the men evil looks. "No," he glowered, snatching the items from Ikkaku's hands. "I can remember, and I will honour my bets, even it will be hundred years from now! Or even longer!" He scribbled furiously before handing the paper back to Ikkaku. "One word outside the four of us, I will garuentte you will not leave this building with the ability to perform any sexual act…permanently." Once said, Hitsugaya's mind was already heading for the Seireitei's sewer system. "ESPECIALLY MATSUMOTO! Promise!"

The three men agreed to the terms. After angrily glaring at the three men, he announced he was tired a promptly got under the covers of his bed, his back to the men.

They laughed. It could be really easy to break through the Captain's cool exterior, so uptight the kid was. _"This is great! This is probably worth all the stuff I now I have to do for Squad 10!"_ Ikkaku mused, staring at the girl. _"She's human, and a little girl, but she will be at that age soon. And according to Rangiku, so is Hitsugaya, despite what he thinks. I'd bet it will be sooner than later. We all saw how he acted with the girl and I heard from Captain Kyoraku 'interesting' things were said at the Captain's meeting after that Ouin incident..."_ He bade goodnight to the two other men who returned to their beds in the room.

As he laid down, he thought, _"Fought in the war, killing many, I have more scars as trophies and my soul has survived...AND I made Captain Hitsugaya blush…well WILL blush in the future!"_

After the war, friends hurt and lost, after so much damage… the future was starting to look good for Ikkaku. He looked over at the small captain, who was already asleep. _"We really need a quiet future, strange as that sounds comin' from me. Poor kid, as bad as it seems to Hitsugaya, this bet will do him a lot of good."_


End file.
